Is there a jQuery Autocomplete plugin that'll force the selection of an item?

Question

There's autocomplete, but it doesn't force the selection of an item. I need something like this but it has to force an item to be selected before you can "submit".

Does it exist?

Answer 1

You can use "change" event of Autocomplete

        var availableTags = [
            "ActionScript",
            "AppleScript"
        ];
        $("#tags").autocomplete({
            source: availableTags,
            change: function (event, ui) {
                if(!ui.item){
                    //http://api.jqueryui.com/autocomplete/#event-change -
                    // The item selected from the menu, if any. Otherwise the property is null
                    //so clear the item for force selection
                    $("#tags").val("");
                }

            }

        });

Answer 2

This is my solution with .blur (moreover I use name|ID pairs)

jQuery("#username").autocomplete(
    "/yii_app/stock/suggestUser",
    {
        'mustMatch':true,
        'multiple':false,
        'formatItem':function(result, i, num, term) {
            return '<small>'+result[1]+'</small>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'+ result[0];
        }
    }
).result(
    function(event,item) {
        $("#user_id").val(item[1]);
    }
).blur(
    function() {
        $("#user_id").val('');
        $(this).search();
    }
);

user_id is a hidden input field, username is an text input field ajax result uses the following format: user1name|user1id\n user2name|user2id\n

Answer 3

Use the option:

mustMatch:true,

This is available in the Bassistance autocomplete plugin. Ii do not know if it is a part of jQuery autocomplete or of Bassistance's autocomplete, but it works!